I’ve been approached a few times in 2012 by folks just starting out as Sourcers, Resourcers or Executive Researchers (a rose by any other name?).

I thought I would put together the advice I’ve shared with them (and some extras) here:

By far the best way to learn is to JUST DO IT! Everyone has a different style of sourcing, we’re all sourcing for different kinds of candidates and what works for one person will be useless for another. So just get stuck in!

I learned the most by joining Twitter and it still helps me learn new things most days. It’s a great place ask questions as well as network with people in both the recruitment industry and the niche you are sourcing in. Feel free to follow me if you join. If I don’t follow straight back and welcome you – please bug me!

Feel free to meet me for coffee – always happy to have my brains picked by new sourcers. You might choose to work with me too.

Tools and Resources

Take a look at the Useful Tools page on the UK Sourcers site. There’s everything there from in depth guides and custom search engines to Twitter search tools.

I’d also recommend joining the UK Sourcers LinkedIn Group where I’m happy to answer any sourcing questions if you’re struggling with a tricky assignment.

Events

Keep an eye on the information coming out of these events in 2012 and try to attend if you can.

The Social Recruiting Conference
Crexia hosts the fourth Social Recruiting Conference in London on 28th June. This is a thought-leading Social Media in Recruiting conference, with case studies.
Follow on Twitter: @crexia and #srconf
Twitter chat every Wednesday: #srchat

#Tru Events – 2012
The Recruiting Unconference. You get out of these events what you put in and if you come armed with questions then there will be someone there to answer them. There is always a sourcing track on the bill. #TruLondon has already happened this year (I hear there might be another one in September) and it looks like #TruLeeds is soon to be anounced for July.
Follow tweets from this event: #TruLondon #TruLeeds

The Talent Sourcing Conference – 23rd August 2012
The first conference event in the UK to be dedicated exclusively to the topic of sourcing.
More info here: http://talentsourcing.eventbrite.com/

SourceCon – 20th & 21st September 2012
The original Sourcing conference will be back again in the Autumn, this time in Texas. Not always accessible to us on our side of the pond, but there is always a healthy stream of tweets from attendees and SourceCon often provide a live-stream of the event so that we can watch online.
Lots of great info on the blog, all from top sourcers: http://sourcecon.com
Follow on Twitter: @SourceCon and #SourceCon

The Onrec Conference & Exhibition – 4th October 2012
This year’s event focuses on how to harness the power of online recruitment, and the latest thinking in how to make full use of the UK’s online recruitment opportunities. Of particular interest to budding sourcers will be Laura Stoker from AIRS – the USA’s primary sourcing training provider.
Follow on Twitter: @Onrec

People to follow and learn from

Amybeth Hale (USA):
Amybeth was my introduction to sourcing. She’s been behind the SourceCon events and website for the past couple of years but has recently started a new Sourcing gig with Microsoft.
Blog: researchgoddess.com
Twitter: @researchgoddess

Andy Headworth (UK):
I learn new things from Andy all the time – he also asks me really difficult sourcing questions that I often can’t answer! He runs Sirona Consulting and mainly helps recruitment teams use Social Media more effectively.
Blog: Sirona Says
Twitter: @andyheadworth

Bill Boorman (UK):
Bill is the man behind #Tru and a font of knowledge about all things social recruiting. He’s a pretty good sourcer too! He’s especially good at new ideas.
Blog: Norton Folgate
Twitter: @BillBoorman

Glen Cathey (USA):
A sourcing legend from the USA. Glen is particularly skilled in searching LinkedIn – his blog posts are very in depth and thorough.
Blog: Boolean Black Belt
Twitter: @GlenCathey

Irena Shamaeve (USA):
Irena’s knowledge of Boolean search is legendary in the world of Sourcing.
Blog: Boolean Strings Blog
Boolean Strings Community: on Ning and on LinkedIn

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UK Sourcers is back with a new website!

I started UK Sourcers in 2009. I think I finally have the time to show the project the love it deserves. I have started by putting together this brand new blog. I have imported a few of the best posts from the old UK Sourcers Posterous here to keep things all in one place.

You can get regular updates about Sourcing, both finding and attracting talent online via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook too 🙂

Search Engine News

Events

We have had some great events in April.

Reconverse hosted a great event on Mobile Recruiting. Take a look the results of their mobile recruiting survey. If you’ve not thought about how mobile should fit into your candidate sourcing and attraction strategy, maybe it’s time to now. The event also inspired this blog post from James Mayes – have you ever thought about using Wi-Fi for recruitment?

Social Media In Recruitment from Web Based Recruitment, saw large numbers gather for the fourth year in a row. Lots of past attendees were back to tell how they had implemented the use of Social Media within their teams and businesses. I’d recommend following all the speakers on Twitter.

The FIRM hosted another great event, this time focused on Cost Effective Resourcing. They have also announced a whole series of events coming up soon for In-house recruiters.

Coming up on 1st May we have Recruiting Through Social Media from Recruitment International. I will be there talking about how I used Social Media with Capgemini Consulting. You can also read more about that on my blog.

We also heard that Social Media Week will be running again in London this September. Keep an eye on #smwldn on Twitter for news as it happens.

Opportunities

I sometimes spot people looks for jobs or people looking to hire recruiters on Twitter. This month we have opportunities for:

A white collar construction Recruiter for @OysterPartners – See the tweet

Sourcing Across The Pond

Cool Tools

Buffer App – A nifty tool I’m trying out for scheduling tweets after hearing so many good things about it at the Social Media In Recruitment conference. dabr.co.uk – A tool built in the UK for accessing Twitter on your mobile phone, great if you don’t have a smartphone. Read more about what Dabr is from one of its creators, James Whatley.Maddle – Recommended at Social Media In Recruitment this week for getting your careers site mobile friendly very fast. Find out more about this Netherland’s based startup in this video from the guys at mRecruitingcamp.

I hope you found this news roundup useful – if you have anything you’d like me to include in future, do let me know.

Wikipedia went live on 15th January 2001, so has just turned 10 years old – Happy Birthday!

In honour of this, I thought I would put together a list of why it’s part of my sourcing and recruitment tool kit.

As part of your quest to find the best possible talent, Wikipedia allows you to;

Get an overview of an industry

Working in a new sector all of a sudden, need to get up to speed quickly? Wikipedia is perfect for this.

Learn the jargon

An article can quickly introduce you to a lot of buzz words surrounding a topic and often help you get an idea of what they mean. Perfect when you’re looking for keywords to aid your search or you need to ask intelligent questions of recruiters and hiring managers.

Get an overview of a job function

Never searched for a Business Development Manager before? Pop on over to Wikipedia and learn what it’s all about before you start your search.

Find lists

What would be useful, a list of NHS Trusts or a list of Social Networks? Wikipedia has got it all. It might not be perfectly accurate or up to date, but a list on Wikipedia is often a good enough start for a thorough search or investigation.

Discover links

Wikipedia recommends that contributors site the sources of the information contained in its articles. These are often great sites for further investigation.

Understand the technology

Recruiting for an expert in Fancy Widget design? No idea what a Fancy Widget does? Nip over to Wikipedia and learn the difference between a vertical axis wind turbine and a horizontal axis wind turbine – it might be import to the skills you’re looking for.

See who’s editing the pages?

I have never actually done this but it stands to reason that someone editing a page on a topic might have some kind of expertise or experience in that field… have you ever tried to source a candidate from Wikipedia?

I would recommend that Wikipedia be used as an introduction to a topic. It would be remiss of me not to remind you that it’s best to be careful and not blindly take articles at face value.

UK Sourcers Meetup

Follow us on LinkedIn

The UK Sourcers LinkedIn group is open to all recruitment professionals in the United Kingdom. Members of the group get regular news updates, sourcing challenges and always hear about our events first.

Like us on Facebook

UK Sourcers is a community run by Katharine Robinson (aka TheSourceress).

It is a resource for UK recruitment professionals to learn more about Internet sourcing techniques.